Preview

The Lloyd George Coalition

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
4874 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Lloyd George Coalition
The Lloyd George Coalition 1918-1922

The Coupon Election 1918

The Representation of the People Act 1918 provided the background to the 1918 election. All men over 21 could vote. A small number of women were also eligible to. These were the over 30's and the wives of important British. men

• The Liberals were still split between old (Asquith) and new (Lloyd George)
• Labour had to decide whether to fight the election independently or continue under Lloyd George. (Mowat: 1966: 2-3, 6-7)
• The Conservatives had to decide the same.
Labour decided to fight independently and the Conservatives decided to carry on the coalition with the Liberals. The Conservatives decided to this as Lloyd George was a popular figure amongst the public.
An agreement was made with the Conservative leader Andrew Bonar Law. 150 Lloyd George candidates would not be opposed by Conservatives in the constituencies in which they were standing for election.
A letter explaining this position (the coupon) was sent to all candidates who were willing to support the coalition. Each letter was signed by both Bonar Law and Lloyd George. Asquith was furious with this and nicknamed the letters "coupons". (Bentley:1967: 16)

The Outcome

The Lloyd George coalition was easily returned to power. However, the weakness of the Liberals effectively made the coalition, in effect, a Conservative government with a Liberal Prime Minister. (Bentley: 1967: 16-17)
Note: The Conservatives were pleased with the outcome of the coupon election as they rode into power on the back of Lloyd George's popularity'.
The success of this result meant that the "Bolshevik" threat of Labour had been neutralised-the Conservatives held power. (Mowat: 1966: 5)

What were the problems that Lloyd George faced after World War One?

Industrial unrest

• Inflation rose at the end of the war. Prices and profits rose but wages lagged behind. This caused industrial unrest; between 1919 and 1922


Bibliography: • Bentley B Gilbert, 1967, Britain since 1918, Harper & Row • Charles Loch Mowat, 1966, BRITAIN BETWEEN THE WARS, Methuen & Co LTD
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Explain How Successful Was The Liberal Government In Dealing With The Constitutional Crisis 1909-11
    • 868 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Explain How Successful Was The Liberal Government In Dealing With The Constitutional Crisis 1909-11

    The government could not fumction without money so the issue was put to the voters to decide. The Conservatives had to win a large number of seats in order to justify their rejection of the budget, however they did not and ithe election was therefore a defeat for the Conservatives. However, the Liberals no longer had an overall majority in the commons so they could only get their bills passed if they got the support of the Labour party and Irish Nationalists. The Irish Nationalists would only give their support in return for granting of Home Rule for Ireland, so the Liberal party had to include Home Rule in their policy. The Liberals were reliant on the Labour Party as Labour would only support them in return for favourable legislation for trade unions, assistance for working class candidates to become MPs. This allowed the Labour Party to develop links with uniona and allowed them to field more candidates at future elections, enabling them to challenge the Liberal Party; weakening the Liberals. After the election the budget was re-introduced into parliament and was passed by both…

    • 868 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Explain why the Cpnservatives won the General Election of 1959
    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Explain why the Cpnservatives won the General Election of 1959

    02) - Explain why the Conservative Party won the General Election of 1959 – (12 marks)…

    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How Is the Liberal Electoral Victory of 1906 Best Explained?
    • 1468 Words
    • 6 Pages

    How Is the Liberal Electoral Victory of 1906 Best Explained?

    The liberal’s victory in the 1906 was a very significant one due to how they won it with such an overwhelming majority; it was the biggest electoral victory since 1832. In the 1890’s the liberals were suffering from a crisis identity and they were lacking in money and morale. In the 1906 election the liberals won 49.4% of the vote and that amounted to 399 seats which was such a large margin compared to in 1900 where 45% of the vote was only 183 seats. There are four main reasons arguably why the Liberals won the1906 election and these are through Conservative faults such as the massacre in the Boer war. The education act in 1902 and Chamberlain’s tariff reform campaign also lost the conservatives a lot of support, which meant people turned to liberals just due to disliking the conservatives. The most important reason was Arthur Balfour getting involved and not making the right decisions for the conservatives and losing a lot of the voters they had before. The liberals also used a very negative campaign in order to get voters to realise the flaws in the conservative’s ideals and make them vote for the liberals just through dislike of the other parties.…

    • 1468 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Explain How Successful Were The Liberal Government In The Years 1906-1914
    • 1189 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Explain How Successful Were The Liberal Government In The Years 1906-1914

    When the Liberals came into power in 1906 the Conservatives held a startling majority in the House of Lords due to their…

    • 1189 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    A. Explain Why the House of Lords Rejected the 1909 Budget.
    • 619 Words
    • 3 Pages

    A. Explain Why the House of Lords Rejected the 1909 Budget.

    The first reason I am going to bring forward is that this new budget included the idea of taxation on the rich for money that would go to support the poor. A position in the House of Lords was inherited; this meant that the peers in the House of Lords were all relations with inherited wealth. This meant that the people the Budget targeted included the peers in the House of Lords; they did not feel it was fair to have their money taxed of them and saw it as an attack on them by the Liberals. So they rejected this budget so they wouldn’t be taxed. The peers believed that this budget was unfair on them ‘These (land) taxes are justifiable if you believe that land is national property’ however they did not believe this, they believed that the land they owned was theirs and no one should be able to take it from them as, that, they said could be seen as stealing- therefore they had hostility towards the new budget. This budget not only taxed them directly but indirectly to, David Lloyd George also wanted to put taxes on luxury goods such as motor cars and beer. This luxury goods tax also hit the wealthy; they didn’t think the poor should be getting their money because they thought the lower class were poor because they were lazy (they believed in self-help), therefore they did not think the lower classes deserved to be given their money because they were not doing anything to be worthy of it. Another reason is that the House of Lords felt that the Budget was too controversial; they thought that Lloyd George had other…

    • 619 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Explain why free trade was an issue in the 1906 General Election campaign.
    • 304 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Explain why free trade was an issue in the 1906 General Election campaign.

    This was the first time the Liberals were reunited since the Boer war. This aided them in an attempt to reunite there votes aswell. This meant that they were the second biggest party after the conservatives. All they needed to do was show the weaknesses of Balfour. The final nail in the coffin was having a decisive manifesto over free trede and how they refused to do it in case it harmed the working class. It was most important to appease the working class because they were the majority of the vote but they were also the poorest people able to vote with decisiveness.…

    • 304 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Cabinet Is No Longer Significant in Uk Politics
    • 548 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Cabinet Is No Longer Significant in Uk Politics

    During the formation of the government David Cameron made concessions to the Liberal Democrats so that the prospect of a coalition would look more appealing. These concessions included giving significant cabinet positions to Liberal Democrat MPs, Nick Clegg for example became Deputy Prime Minister. It was these concessions that so much reduced the possible individual power of the prime minister and gave the Liberal Democrat cabinet members large amounts of influence over government policy. This resulted from the conservative fear that any significant cabinet resignations would cause the collapse of the government and a the entering into power of the Labour party (as the polls indicate), this means that Cameron had to keep the Lib Dem party onside.…

    • 548 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Explain Why Did The Republicans Win The 1906 Election
    • 1006 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Explain Why Did The Republicans Win The 1906 Election

    In the1870s, the Conservative Party won three out of four elections and formed the government for 17 years out of a total of 20 years. It reflected the Conservative Party was the most powerful party in England at that time; they even had an overpowering majority of seats in the House of Lords. They had support from everywhere. However, the situation changed dramatically when the Liberal party won the general election in 1906 with an overwhelming majority of 400 seats as against 157 seats for the Conservatives party. This event was marked as the well-known ‘Liberal landslide’. There are several reasons why the Conservative lost such a large amount of seats; national efficiency, the imposition of Education Act and Licensing Act, tariff campaign and Neglect of social reform.…

    • 1006 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How Did Lloyd George Fall From Power
    • 1128 Words
    • 5 Pages

    How Did Lloyd George Fall From Power

    Lloyd George was dominant in politics in 1918. The First World War resulted in an increase in his popularity and in the coalition he was a valuable asset to the conservative party. Various factors, his style of government and its effect on the conservatives, the conservative attitude towards him and finally his poor decisions in policymaking brought about his downfall. These factors collectively led to his downfall, however in the end, the conservatives decided to abandon him because he had outlived his usefulness due to his tarnished reputation and growing unpopularity.…

    • 1128 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Explain Why The Conservatives Win The Election Of 1906
    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Explain Why The Conservatives Win The Election Of 1906

    Perhaps the most important policy contributing to the Tories’ defeat was the Tariff Reform pushed by Joseph Chamberlain. The reform would have taxed many foods coming from other countries, whilst showing preference to imports from within the British Empire. The intention was the protection and growth of the Empire (Imperial Protectionism), but the idea split the Conservatives and Balfour refused to accept the policy. This caused Chamberlain’s resignation, and made the party look indecisive and caused a divide. The Liberal party would use this to their advantage in the 1906 election and painted the Tories as the party of highly…

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    William Lyon Mackenzie King Research Paper
    • 3163 Words
    • 13 Pages

    William Lyon Mackenzie King Research Paper

    In the 1935 election the Liberals campaigned by saying that Conservatives had stolen most of their new reforms from the Liberals, who were better able to operate them. The depression gave King his greatest Parliamentary majority up to that time, 171 seats out of 245.…

    • 3163 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Explain Why the Great Reform Act of 1832 Was Passed
    • 318 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Explain Why the Great Reform Act of 1832 Was Passed

    The whigs were not the liberal reformers who believed in sharing political power more sparsely that many thought they were. It is more likely that they were desperate to regain office and saw parliamentary reform as the best way to acquire support. They recognised the danger of a French style revolution, however. The whigs were mostly aristocrats and realised that if they didn’t share some political power they were in danger of losing…

    • 318 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Labour weakness was the reason for conservative dominance
    • 562 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Labour weakness was the reason for conservative dominance

    Labour weakness was the most important reason for Conservative dominance from 1951 to 1964. How far do you agree? Between 1951 and 1964, the Conservative's time in power, the Labour party were providing ineffectual opposition. One of the reasons for this was their internal disputes over issues such as unilateralism. However, there were also more important reasons for Conservative dominance, such as the economy and growing prosperity in Britain, the property owning democracy and the greater availability of credit, modern conveiniences and luxury items. Prosperity during this time was growing, and people were in general wealthier than they had been before. A reason for this could have been the manipulation of the economy by the Conservatives; their stop-and-go stagflation lowered and rose taxes in accordance to the election date in order to gain more votes. Though they had no real long-term economic plan and their wily manipulation was often criticised, it did help them to gain votes. The wages also rose during this time meaning people were able to more freely afford luxury items and other things such as mortgages, which links to the property owning democracy.…

    • 562 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How Did Lloyd George Win The Liberal Party
    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages

    How Did Lloyd George Win The Liberal Party

    Lloyd George was never a party man and cannot be said to have served his party well, he played an ultimately destructive role in the party; the split of the Liberal party owes much to ‘the man who won the war’. But he did, nevertheless, play a major role in winning the war. As wartime chancellor Lloyd George’s wartime budgets doubled income…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    British Raj
    • 305 Words
    • 2 Pages

    British Raj

    In 1947 the Labour government in Britain whose finances was exhausted by the recently concluded world war 2 and conscious that it had: no mandate at home, no international support and no reliability of the native forces to continue control of India. They decided to end the British rule.…

    • 305 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More

Related Topics